Who Am I? Fannie Lou Hamer

SHero Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6, 1917, in rural Montgomery County, Mississippi. She and her family were sharecroppers for most of her life, struggling to survive and suffering through the ills of oppressiona and discrimination.  In 1962, she met civil rights activists who encouraged blacks to register to vote, and soon became a force in the movement. Hamer also worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, fighting racial segregation and injustice in the South.  In 1964, she helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and went on to speak alongside the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others.  As a result of her staunch activism, Hamer was unjustly arrested, threatened, and beaten on a number of occasionss, but never gave up the fight. Ancestor Fannie Lou Hamer was a SHero for the South and for African Americans across the nation.